


They Laughed At Switzerland

by Haberdasher



Category: Original Work
Genre: Gen, Switzerland
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-11
Updated: 2017-01-11
Packaged: 2019-09-23 22:54:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 433
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17089298
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Haberdasher/pseuds/Haberdasher
Summary: A story based on the writing prompt "All the nations of the world unite... except for one."





	They Laughed At Switzerland

They laughed at Switzerland.

The decision to join the United World Government seemed like a no-brainer. The new government promised peace for all, no more difficulties of sending products or travelers across borders, and generally simplifying world politics, with no downside in sight. It was a goodwill gesture, with little cost but much to gain. One by one, over the course of several decades, more and more nations joined in, until even the most independent states were proudly flying the UWG flag above their own.

Except, that is, for stubborn little Switzerland.

Switzerland was famous for its traditional stance of neutrality, true, but this was a special occasion, an opportunity to bring the entire world together. Many other nations had joined despite this lumping them together with former rivals or enemy states. Surely, they could be persuaded to change their minds just this once… except that, when the subject was brought up to the Swiss government, the answer was always a resounding “no”.

Many years went by with the world flying two flags- the vast majority of it flying the United World Government flag, and Switzerland stubbornly flying its own flag and no other. Some criminals sought refuge from the world government within the Swiss borders, but while Switzerland refused to honor the UWG laws, it enforced its own with zeal, unwilling to have its vaunted neutrality equated with lawlessness. Besides, Switzerland still held trade deals and other arrangements with the rest of the world, so it would be unwise for them to alienate the UWG too greatly- and if Switzerland started causing any major trouble, well, they were also greatly out-armed. Any war against the world government would be one that Switzerland was bound to lose.

But Switzerland didn’t take up arms against the world government.

It didn’t have to.

One day, the Gray-Davies Memo was released, exposing the corruption within the UWG’s ranks, the ulterior motives behind so many of its plans…

War broke out, a civil war on unprecedented scale, a war of many names, a world war in the fullest sense of the term…

Bombs flew across the globe, guerilla fighting broke out in every corner of the earth, rockets and sirens and tanks dominated the lives of a great many…

And throughout it all, Switzerland sat back, only mildly disturbed by the chaos that surrounded it, and counted the money in its famed bank vaults, and quietly watched the world burn.

Neutrality, it turns out, has its advantages.

Oh yes, they laughed at Switzerland. But in the end, when the time for reckoning came… Switzerland laughed at them.


End file.
